Perfectly Mislaid Odium
by Rowana Renee
Summary: Yes, you do see two things. Drama, and George. My my, whatever have I done? It's only T because it gets a little violent and angsty, that's all. You know how I roll. Anyway, it's the life of the forgotten character; George.


This is the first story of its kind. Ever. Hahaha, I know, I know. You guys can stop going "What?" and rubbing your eyes in total panic over the name in the "Which charrie is this about" thingy. ^?^ Yes, you read right, it's aout the forgotten character of forgotten characters! The man mentioned in only one book, the character so rarely mentioned in fanfics that you could almost think he's an OC! It's George! Also, I must admit that, though he is one of my favourite characters, I don't know what he looks like, and will therefore make something up. You're about to meet my mental picture of George ^?^

By the way, whoever can tell me what each of the chapter headings means gets a prize ^?^

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Perfectly mislaid odium

Chapter 1: Fortuitous Debacle

George was in more of a hurry than he'd ever been in before, he thought. Not only was he late for his debate class, but he was also horribly worried that his mentor might have ripped his paper on proper speaking from top to bottom, left to right with that quill of his, marking incorrect grammer, terms, and the like. He knew, of course, that he wouldn't have made many, if any, errors, what with the number of times he himself had gone over it, time and time again, over the past three days. He'd lost quite a bit of sleep over that paper, and now he was paying for it by being late.

He sped down another corridor and gave a quick nod of acknowladgment to someone, the identity of whom he didn't know, before stopping, having almost crashed into the door to the kitchen. Oh, good lord above, he'd made a wrong turn somewhere! He sighed, looking around with large green eyes and running a hand through his slightly scruffy brownish-blond hair.

If he was near the kitchen then that would mean that he was too far away from his classroom to actually make it on time. Oh, curses, now he was in a jam no matter how fast he ran. He was, however, jolted out of his panicked thoughts when the door in front of him, which he'd forgotten to back away from, opened and slammed into him, throwing him back a few feet and knocking him to the floor.

He gave a startled yelp as he suddenly got to know the hard stone a bit better than before, and came to realize that it wasn't actually granite, like he'd originally thought, but rather a type of smooth rock that he hadn't seen before. He made a mental note to ask someone, one of the maids, what it was and then find out as much as he could about the type; he didn't like not knowing what things were, as it made him feel somewhat low or deficient.

He glanced up at the person who'd opened the door and was surprised to see noneother than Jenny. She looked just as surprised as he was, if not more. She also wore the same slightly panicked look that George himself had worn not but moments before. She looked well, he thought, though frazzled. Odds were she was late for one of her finals, potentially, though George guessed that it was wrong to just assume things.

Jenny gasped as she realized that she'd hit him with the door. "Oh my gosh, George, are you alright?"

He almost smiled at the worry in her voice; after all, he wasn't hurt. But then, she may be worried because he hadn't actually gotten up yet. Yes, that was most likely it, he thought somewhat analytically. He grinned broadly and stood up, now a bit jittery. "No, no, I'm fine, really, I'm alright. Really, I'm okay. Are you? Alright, I mean." he mentally cursed himself for, once again, babbling almost mindlessly. He was getting better at that sort of thing, in the classroom, but when it came to talking to someone who wasn't teaching him he found that he was less likely to make a fool of himself if he only remained silent.

Jenny smiled back, the worry in her eyes fading just a little. "Oh good," she said in a relieved tone, "And I'm okay as well. Thank you for asking."

There was a bit of an awkward silence before they both spoke at the same time. "School going well?"

Jenny and George both laughed uncomfortably, each wanting the other to go first. Finally Jenny decided to say something.

"Master Chubb isn't nearly as evil as everyone thinks he is; I've only seen him hit two people with his ladle. He's just not terribly patient, but I think he likes me and about...oh...five others. It's wonderful, really. He's been showing us all sorts of new things that we wouldn't have dreamed of trying before, like new ways to cut things and such. And he said that, at the end of this year, he's going to teach the best three in class how to deal with more exotic foods, like bananas and pineapples, and something called a starfruit that I've never seen, as well as gooseberries and oh it's going to be so fascintating, I hope I'm in the best three..." she finished wistfully

George beamed at her. "You know you will be, Jenny; you're cooking is almost better than Chubbs', he'll have to choose you! In fact, you'll probably cook for king Duncan himself one day and you'll be so famous that...what?"

Jenny was giggling happily to herself, looking extremely pleased about something. Still smiling, she replied, "You."

George frowned, now curious. "What?"

Jenny smiled even more broadly. "You're always so sweet, George! I don't know how, but you're always so nice, even if you are just as busy as the others, maybe even more busy."

Now George was blushing heavily, "Oh...um...I'm not really, but...you really are good...and...uh...you're very nice too and..."

Jenny was grinning again, though slightly remorsful that she'd embarrassed him so much. "How's your school been faring?" she said quickly

George brightened almost instantly. "It's actually quite good, really. We've moved on from debating topics with other fiefs, and how to go about that, and now we're studying how to debate with foreign kingdoms on all sorts of things. Did you know that they're more likely to listen to reason if you speak a little, at least, of their language? The foreign kings generally really like it if, in their language, you either ask them how they're doing or make a friendly comment about something they've done or such, or bring up one of the great heroes of their culture. It's really mind-blowing, all of the new tactics we're going over."

Jenny was, of course, almost completely lost by the time he finished his little speech, but she smiled and nodded nonetheless. "Oh, by the way," she said after he finished, "Did you hear about Will?"

George nodded. "He and Horace have finally seen eye to eye because of that spectacular boar hunt, right? I was so shocked when I found out; it was almost like hearing oil and water have blended without a hitch!"

Jenny shook her head. "No, after that; Will was attacked by three battleschool apprentices!"

George gaped. "Really? Was Horace one of them? Why? He didn't start it? Did it involve sarcasm?"

Jenny, stunned by the sudden stream of questions, took a few moments to think before answering. "No, Horace made them stop, with Ranger Halts' help, of course. But now the three apprentices have been banished! Turns out it's an actual crime to attack a ranger, or a ranger apprentice. But they broke his arm and...I think he said it was two ribs...I don't know. But Halt was furious! He wanted them to get sent to prison and then banished, or thrown in a moat or some such. It was actually quite funny, the way Will told how Halt was afterwards."

George scowled lightly. "How long ago did it happen?"

Jenny shrugged. "Um...I think it was last week or so, but I don't remember exactly. Will's almost better now; he's mostly just mad that he can shoot his bow because of his arm."

George nodded slowly, thinking it over. "What do you think about it?" he asked

Jenny tilted her head to the side. "Think about what?"

It was Georges' turn to shrug. "Being friends with someone who's going to be a ranger."

Jenny blinked a few times. "Oh, that? Well, he's not any different, is he? So it must not be that bad, being a ranger. The only difference is that I don't see him a lot anymore."

George nodded. "I agree, but some of the people in scribeschool, they don't like it at all. They seem almost...I don't know...well, it's wrong...they hate him for whatever reason..."

"Well, lots of people hate rangers. It's probably nothing to worry about."

There was another odd silence before Jenny started down the corridor again. "Well, it was nice to see you again, George."

George smiled and waved slightly. "It was nice to see you as well, Jenny." he said quietly.

He wondered how on Earth every conversation he'd had lately had turned to Will at some point or another. It was so strange. And, by now, he'd almost entirely missed his class. Oh well, he supposed he could make up for it, but it was still slightly, disturbing to him, how he would quite happily skip class to talk to Jenny. Ah well, even though he had missed class, at least he'd been able to see his old ward mate one more time than he normally would have been able to. And that was good fortune indeed.

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Next chapter will contain George angst, Georges' classmates, a bit of Will vs. Halt, strange news, Halt/someone you wouldn't think of, and a very very strange little tidbit of something mean. Oh, and did I mention that there's going to be Will vs. Halt and Will/George friendship stuff? Oh yeah, I went there. Hey! Who says that they can't be BFFs, like Will and *Gags* Horace? Hmm mmm, yeppers ^?^


End file.
